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From: era@ncar.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: is this funny?
Message-ID: <14618@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 3 Oct 90 01:32:45 GMT
References: <14311@bunker.UUCP>
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Reply-To: era@ncar.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold)
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Organization: Scientific Computing Division/NCAR, Boulder, CO
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Index Number: 10785

In article <14311@bunker.UUCP> Douglas.Zachary@p0.f10.n137.z1.fidonet.org
writes:
|Index Number: 10528
|
|The joke was not funny. Many jokes are not funny, the wit is. Most 
|Polish people that I know are not offended at Polish jokes. I am rarely 
|offended at ant real joke. A fellow quad and I have a heck of a good 
|time inventing quad jokes. Are we to be emotionally disabled and humor 
|disabled because we are physically disabled? Who says?
|Be offended if you must but don't waste your time worrying about it.

I (of course) have no objection to someone with a disability making
fun of their own disability!

However, such jokes told by ABLEd persons can have quite unintended
consequences, esp. when involving mental disabilities.  The autism
joke did, and it was somewhat milder than most jokes of that type.

The joke that got my interest (and dander) up WRT the issue of humor,
was one I read last year on Usenet.  Its title was (feature this):
"Why Beer is Better than Retarded People".
--
Ed Arnold * NCAR * POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 * 303-497-1253(voice)
303-497-1137(fax) * era@ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * era@ncario.BITNET
era@ncar.UUCP * Edward.Arnold@f809.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG